Web services can include software systems designed to support machine-to-machine interaction over a network, allowing for software programs, applications, operations, and modules, or services, executed and served at least in part by a remote computing device, to be accessed and consumed by another computing device or system. A number of web service platforms, specifications, interfaces, architectures, and messaging protocols have been developed and popularized, including web services description language (WSDL), service oriented architecture (SOA), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Representational State Transfer (REST), and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), among others.
Systems consuming a web service can interact with the third party systems serving the web service. In some instances, servers of the web service can also interact with systems consuming the web service. Consequently, both web service servers and consumers can open their respective systems to access and at least partial control by one or more other systems during and in connection with the delivery of a particular web service. Exposing one's system to another in the delivery of a web service can introduce security vulnerabilities to both server and consumer systems. Consequently, each system in a web service transaction or relationship can set security settings, rules, measures, and protocols to assist in protecting their respective system from security threats introduced as side effects of the system's participation in the consumption or delivery of a particular web service.